


Five Times Jazz Terrified Himself With Horror Games

by raisedbymoogles



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Freeform, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, Gen, Prey - Freeform, Silent Hill 2, Slenderman - Freeform, horror games, no i haven't played any of these, playing fast and loose with timelines again a.k.a. don't try to make this fit in canon, tagging all those here instead of in the fandoms section because it's not really about those games, the author is a total wuss sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 19:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15847416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raisedbymoogles/pseuds/raisedbymoogles
Summary: It's cultural research, which is part of Jazz's job. Honest. Really.





	Five Times Jazz Terrified Himself With Horror Games

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gemma_Inkyboots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemma_Inkyboots/gifts).



> Special thanks to 'Boots, who prompted me this over on my Dreamwidth.
> 
> Also special thanks to ask-work-hard-play-hard on Tumblr, a now-defunct(?) Prowl/Jazz RP blog, who sparked this whole idea by inflicting the Slenderman game on Jazz at one point.

1\. _Prey_  
It didn't really freak Jazz out as much as he'd thought it would. He _already_ lived in a world where ordinary objects could suddenly transform and attack him, _frag you Soundwave._ A couple of nightmares and one incident where he nearly shot Smokescreen's office chair because it was in a weird place and he was fine.

...of course, there was the subsequent mess of Red Alert deciding that Jazz was compromised, but a quick scan for cerebroshells and a brief stint of notoriety as _Jazz, the assassin of office furniture_ was the worst he suffered from the whole debacle. It wasn’t enough to put him off his newest line of cultural inquiry.

2\. _Silent Hill 2_  
The thing was, Cybertron didn't really _have_ a concept of horror as entertainment. Most of the Autobots were confused by it. _Didn’t humans have enough to be afraid of,_ they wondered, _what with being so small and armorless and vulnerable?_ Jazz, having been introduced to the concept of the ‘adrenaline junkie’ the previous year courtesy of Carly, had his hypotheses.

But proving them required research, and Jazz chose video games as his particular focus due to their similarity to aspects of Cybertronian storytelling. Spike, ever the helpful little cultural attaché, mentioned this one game as a critically acclaimed example of 'psychological horror.' “That sounds like it’s right up my alley,” Jazz declared, and raced off to procure a copy.

Spike maintained ever after that his intent had not been malicious. Jazz, jumping at the sound of radio static for a solid week, wasn't sure he believed him.

3\. _Amnesia_  
This was Jazz's first horror game where the player character had no ability to defend himself, and it was exquisitely terrifying at a level the warrior had never imagined. 

He actually developed new hiding-spot-locating subroutines, a thoroughly disquieting overlay on the usual prompts and indicators through which he, like the rest of his species, viewed the world. Storage units big enough to cram himself into got extra scrutiny, as did low dark corners despite the fact that he’d _also_ developed subroutines for being something that surely no Transformer had ever been before: _afraid of the dark._ Which was a handicap in his line of work. Yet he couldn’t stop playing, even downloading the extra DLC side-story despite Ratchet’s strict orders against it after that time he wound up diving into a cupboard to hide when the medic stormed into the medbay a little too forcefully. Even as the monsters tormented his recharge, the desire to know _what happens next_ in the game’s story kept pulling him back in. And humans did this to themselves for _fun!_

4\. _Slenderman_  
"This has to stop, Jazz." Prowl's grumble was slightly muffled.

"Noooo, s' _research,_ " Jazz protested. Admittedly it lost something when he was wrapped around Prowl's head and upper torso, but - Prowl thought, tugging Jazz's arm down so he could see the datapad he'd been reading before Jazz burst into his office - you couldn't fault his commitment.

"It appears to be self-inflicted torture," he commented, resigning himself to being a Jazz-perch until he calmed down. "Aren't we subjected to horrors enough?"

"'Cons got nothin' on Slenderman for pure creepy," Jazz shot back, then actually thought about what he'd said. "...heh. For the most part... Slenderwave."

Prowl groaned. "Now you're going to give _me_ nightmares."

Jazz laughed, and the tension in his frame appreciably eased. His treads touched the floor again, and he simply stood there with his arms slung around Prowl’s shoulders while his engine audibly downshifted to a lower register.

“...are you calming down?” Prowl asked with a careful tilt of his head.

Jazz hummed, thoughtfully propping his chin on Prowl’s crown. “Mostly just... reworkin’ my hypothesis.”

5\. _Five Nights at Freddy's  
"AUGH SLAG"_

_Thump._

"...whoo. Sorry, gang, I had t' peel myself off the ceiling." Jazz grinned at his webcam. "That was a good one, right? Who was bettin' on it bein' Chica who got me next?" A few people sounded off in the Twitch chat window. "Hah. Well, award yourselves a point. Remember, most points at the end of the session gets some cool swag!"

"Jazz, is everything-"

"YIE!"

Optimus blinked at the abruptly-occupied ceiling. "I apologize, Jazz, I didn't mean to startle you."

Jazz eased himself down again, cackling. "Hey! Did anyone bet on _this_ jumpscare?" He tugged Optimus forward. "Hey, everybody, say hi to my boss! Boss-bot, these are the humans watchin' me make a fool of myself playin' Five Nights. And I'm pretty sure there's some 'Cons on the channel too." A flurry of denials. "Don't even try it, Drag Strip, I clocked you the second you logged on."

"Oh," Optimus blinked. "I apologize for interrupting. ...are you winning?"

...dammit, how was his boss so _adorable._ "Not even close. I just died again, but that just means I get t' do a death minigame. Which is good," Jazz quickly clarified when Optimus headtilted. "If I do all these right, I get to bring peace to the souls of some kids."

He settled himself back in his chair and put his audio hookups back in; he expected Optimus to wish him well and leave again. Instead he felt a broad, warm hand on his shoulder. "...may I linger?" Optimus asked quietly.

_...aw, slag, boss._

Jazz covered his leader's hand with his own, spark pulsing with the terrible memories they shared. "Sure. I could use a special guest, huh, gang?" he addressed the chat window. It was instantly flooded with affirmations.

Grinning, Jazz picked up the controller.


End file.
